


Divination

by Puffinpastry



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Dragon Quest XI Act II Spoilers, Fortune Telling, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Selectively Mute Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI), Set in Act i
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25941586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puffinpastry/pseuds/Puffinpastry
Summary: Don’t worry about the future. Know that in it, you’ve won.Don’t spare energy you cannot afford to waste worrying for failure. Assume that you will win.Have faith in the Luminary.That’s what everyone says to him, and it’s all well and good, but...Sometimes, he needs a little more concrete evidence.
Relationships: Camus | Erik/Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 51





	Divination

It wasn’t often that Eleven found time away from his companions. 

It was for many reasons that they chose to stick close, safety in numbers and all that, and of course there was the ever-present looming threat of a run-in with Heliodor’s finest…

But sometimes, Eleven just needed some space to breathe.

Space to think.

They were never quite happy with him when he managed to steal away a quiet moment or three… But he could handle Veronica’s lecturing and Jade’s stern words. 

Sometimes, if he was lucky, he’d get off light with just a warning. After all, it wasn’t as if there was much they could really do to stop him. 

But light was definitely not how tonight’s sneak-back would go. He’d been gone for hours, losing himself in the crowds of Phnom Nohn, just watching the people go by, people he’d saved, spared from the Mural’s trap. 

He didn’t expect any thanks or reward, that just wasn’t how these things seemed to work. And really, that was fine. He wasn’t asking for more than a warm room to spend the night, and a filling meal before they all had to set back out on their way.

Besides, any grand celebrations would likely catch the kind of attention they wanted most to avoid.

It wasn’t the misrecognition that bothered the Luminary, rather it was the parting words that Dora-in-Grey had left him with.

Mordegon… The Lord of Shadows, and the foe he was destined to vanquish.

A creature that held the power to bring paint and stone to terrifying life… A creature that sought everlasting life and boundless power, all for selfish gain.

And that was all he knew for sure.

How in the goddess’s name was he meant to defeat it? 

They still struggled with the relatively common monsters found outside city walls, and Dora-in-Grey had nearly sent them all to an early grave with her bewitching spells. 

Eleven wasn’t ready. He didn’t know if he ever  _ would  _ be. They were down to the last two Orbs… and after they claimed those, who knew how long until he had to make his stand? 

And of course, bringing up his concerns was met with absolute shock.

He was the Luminary! How  _ could  _ he fail? They all had faith in him. In the powers he was born with, in mighty Yggdrasil who blessed him with his birthright.

They meant well. They truly did. 

But… It didn’t help.

He needed someone to confirm his fears, or… Well, not quite that. It wasn’t as though he wanted his friends to believe he would fail, but he needed to know what would happen if he  _ did.  _

What the plan would be.

If they would remain by his side, still fighting. 

The sun was beginning to sink below the mountains, and the lanterns strung between buildings and merchant stalls began to light with the fire of simple spells. 

The pathways bathed in red, and more merchants began to call him to see their wares.

He spared a smile to a few of them, but didn’t bother to check what they were selling.

He didn’t have anything he needed to buy, and he wasn’t half as skilled a haggler as Jade or, funny as it was to watch, Veronica. 

Besides. No one in this town seemed to know his language, and he’d rather not make a fool of himself. 

Eleven came to a stop in a less populated part of the footpath.

The night was young, but his time was short. He needed to make his way back to the inn.

A shame, since his walk only seemed to make him more nervous than he was before. 

“You! You there, in the purple!” 

Eleven didn’t know what it was about this person that caught his attention. There wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about the old woman, not in a town filled to bursting with fortune tellers and masters of sleight of hand. 

He was going to ignore her. Too tired to try to be polite.

But she was used to a tough sell. 

“I’m talking to you, young man!” She called out, “Truly! Who raised you? All the youth of today…” She trailed off, no notice taken of the chuckles she had earned or the pointed looks that Eleven was gaining.

Perfect.

_ “I’m not interested.”  _ Eleven signed, hoping for once that someone understood, but knew better than to expect anything different. 

“Huh?” The woman still didn’t bring down her voice, yelling practically across the street at him.

_ “Mute.”  _ Eleven tried instead.

“What’s all that supposed to be?”

With a frown, Eleven slowly pointed a finger to his lips and shook his head.

Surely that would make it across.

“Can’t talk, eh? Don’t worry about that, none. You don’t need to talk for this.” 

Eleven wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make him actually interested in what she had for sale, or if she  _ intended  _ on successfully creeping him out, but either way… 

“Come on, child.” She gave one last try, “Don’t you want to know your future?”

Eleven knew better than to buy into tricks and fake magic. At least, he did now. Erik had told him everything he needed to know after he’d nearly stopped for every palm-reader and crystal ball fortune teller in downtown Heliodor.

But-

Fantasy or not… Fiction was often a comfort, was it not?

“Ohhh,” she cooed as he came closer, her eyes squinting against the light. “Now I’ve got a good look at you, I can see it. Something heavy is weighing down on your shoulders, isn’t it?”

Something that could be said of anyone. 

“And I don’t mean that little Tockle you’ve got there, son.”

Eleven went cold.

No one. Not  _ one single  _ person he’d met across this world had ever seen the tockles. Nor even so much as known their name. 

“You look surprised. Don’t be. Not all of us are scam artists and frauds, you know.” She picked up one of the vials she had lined up on her table, and set it down before him. 

It’s contents radiated a neon blue. “You should know that, mister Luminary.” 

Eleven’s head shot around, desperate to see if anyone had caught her words, but he was in the clear.

No one was paying any mind to the old scam artist or the poor sod she’d tricked. 

“You’re worried about your destiny. A bit more than the rest of us can really say. I don’t envy you.” She popped the cork from the glass, and poured out a much smaller dose of the oddly colored concoction, and held it to the light. In her hand, the color changed. The blue changed to a bright yellow. “A simple glance into the future.” She explained, but didn’t quite clarify what it was. “Perhaps enough to settle your worries? Or, perhaps it will only confirm them. One way to find out.”

Alarm bells were ringing in Eleven’s mind. Telling him to turn tail and run, find Erik and tell him they needed to  _ run.  _

But his feet were fast-frozen to the stone below. 

“Tell me, Luminary, do you know what a potion like this is worth? What would you pay for a glance into your future?” 

He didn’t have any way to answer.

Didn’t have an  _ answer  _ at all. 

Or, much more than spare change to pay for it in the first place.

Being on the run wasn’t exactly the best paying job in the world.

The old witch smiled kindly. Now looking much closer to one of the older women from his village who would sit in the shade of the big oak tree and knit the afternoons away, rather than a sorceress selling potions of newt eye and monster blood. “It’s not something paid for by goods or gold.” She handed the small vial to Eleven, and he watched in fascination as the color morphed yet again. “If you choose to drink it, you’ll take a single memory from your future, be it ten days or ten years from now, who’s to say? The price you’ll pay is the knowledge it brings you. So, tell me mister Hero, are you willing to look into the belly of the beast?”

It wasn’t that he was willing.

He closed his fist around the vial, and nodded his thanks. Unable to do anything more. 

It wasn’t as though he wasn’t willing.

The color didn’t change again, as he made his way back to his inn room, nor as he sat through yet another lecture about risk-taking. 

And when finally, all seemed to have fallen asleep, Eleven took the vial from his bag, the soft purple glow carefully hidden…

Against his better judgement, Eleven drank it. 

It tasted of earth and juniper, and left a horrid taste in his mouth…

But he felt no change. 

As the minutes ticked by into hours, Eleven sitting awake simply waiting for a vision… Nothing happened.

Perhaps he’d been scammed after all. But the woman hadn’t asked for any payment.

Maybe it was some odd joke?

With a heavy sigh, disappointed though he hadn’t any true expectations, Eleven let the bottle rest under his pillow, carefully hidden so he could find a way to throw it away in the morning, and tried to sleep…

Only to be woken in a most unfamiliar way.

He was brought slowly from his sleep… Naturally. He wasn’t shaken awake, and the covers were not ripped from the bed by his friends sick of his lazy ways. 

He was simply… Rested. Allowed the simple freedom to sleep however long his body needed. 

And yet somehow, that wasn’t the strangest new development. 

Late morning light shone through the window, catching off bare skin, and blue hair, only half-covered by their patchwork blanket. 

_ Erik- _

His body moved, not under his control, but under it all the same. A paradox he couldn’t quite figure out, but it didn’t matter. Distracted by the way Erik’s skin felt under his hand, how downy-soft his hair was between his fingers as he kissed Erik awake. 

It never did take much to wake Erik. In a matter of moments, bleary blue eyes were looking up into Eleven’s. 

“Insatiable.” Erik called him, but hardly seemed upset about being woken. “‘Mornin’.”

“Morning.” Eleven answered back-  _ answered.  _ Verbally. 

His voice sounded odd to his own ears, rocky and uneven, but the fact he was comfortable enough to speak aloud at all-

But his questions and confusion was simply background noise.

It hardly had the strength to touch what he was feeling now, looking down at Erik, ethereal in the morning light, against the white sheets of their shared bed.

_ I love you.  _ Eleven wanted to say. But the words didn’t come out as simply as they should.

So many ways he had to say it now, and just like the hopeless idiot he was, “I knew I’d find you.” 

Years. 

It had been years since he’d found Erik. Years since it had all ended, and everything in the world had turned peaceful and quiet. 

But still. 

He still hadn’t anything better to say.

“Stupid.” Erik insulted him with a smile, using the hold he had on Eleven’s arms to flip them, now the one hanging above Eleven. “Like you could get rid of me if you tried.” 

Years.

And Erik could  _ still  _ turn him into mush with so few words. 

Closing the space between them, Erik kissed him again. Deeper than the first, but only lasting half as long.

Erik’s nose wrinkled as he pulled back. “You taste like dirt. Why do you  _ taste  _ like  _ dirt?  _

Dirt? Now, Eleven wasn’t going to be so mean as to point out Erik’s own morning breath, but-

_ Like earth and juniper.  _ With a start, Eleven woke, jolting up from where he’d laid in bed, the deep burgundy quilt of the inn bed bunched around his legs. A dream.

It was just-

“Woah. You okay, man?”

Heart hammering out a fast march in his chest, El couldn’t call up any decent explanation.

“Nightmare?”

No.

Not- not really. Not what he would call a nightmare. 

But he nodded nonetheless.

There wasn’t any good way to explain that he’d had a dream about waking up next to him, kissing until-

Until…

The bottle under his pillow.

_ “I knew I’d find you.” _

Having to live with the knowledge.

_ “Like you could get rid of me if you tried.” _

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Erik asked, leaning forward to press the back of his hand to Eleven’s forehead. 

He couldn’t help but jump back, his heart hammering all the faster, as if it  _ wanted  _ to kill him. 

He’d win. He’d defeat Mordegon and claim his destiny as a hero.

And after-

Some point along the way…

He’d lose Erik.

And then, gain him back in an entirely new way. 

“You don’t feel like you have a fever.”

This was the price.

A double-edged sword. 

He knew that everything would end up alright.

But…

He didn’t know when. He didn’t know how long. 

He didn’t know what would happen along the way.

Eleven had caught a single glimpse, a single light cast into the darkness, but it was all he had. At least… Until the future he saw finally came. 

Just a little, he wished that he was still blind.

  
  



End file.
